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Today, it is my great pleasure to welcome Kris Byrnes to the In Stitches blog. I’ve mentioned Kris many times in my accounts of the Garden State Sheep & Fiber Festival in Ringoes every September, and I also ran into her last year at the Maryland Sheep and Fiber Festival. For a decade now, she has raised Coopworth sheep at Winterspast Farm in Allentown, Monmouth County (not Pennsylvania).

This is Kris Byrnes at the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival in 2012, at the “All Things Coopworth” booth, selling fleeces.

She is active in 4H and is a member of the Garden State Sheep Breeders Association and the American Coopworth Registry. Kris also spins, dyes and knits, and her home-grown, home-dyed Coopworth yarn has won prizes at the Garden State Sheep & Fiber Festival. She also writes articles for magazines about fiber subjects. When Storey Publishing sent me “The Backyard Sheep” to review, Kris was the best person I knew to review the book. Here is Kris’s review of “The Backyard Sheep: a guide to keeping productive pet sheep” by Sue Weaver:

“The Backyard Sheep” is a good place to start if you’re thinking about raising sheep to keep your farm assessment or to produce your own fiber for spinning yarn.

With three boys finishing school, a flock of 24 sheep (over half of which are rambunctious lambs), six new pigs, and a belated garden to plant, finding a quiet uninterrupted block of time to write a book review has been hard to come by. I thought I had a fool-proof plan: I was going to wake up early Saturday morning and type away before anyone else was stirring. Until I opened the door to let the dog out, and discovered two sheep loose in the front yard. All my plans immediately went out the window. Here’s where Sue Weaver’s book Backyard Sheep: An Introductory Guide to Keeping Productive Pet Sheep does a very good job. If you read her book from cover to cover, you’ll know that such occurrences are likely from time to time if sheep are in your life, and it works out best if you maintain your sense of humor.

The author’s affection for sheep, and her animals in particular, shines through every page. Posts from her farm blog about her adventures and interaction with her flock are sprinkled throughout the text. The insert of color photos is not particularly instructive but does feature gorgeous pictures that demonstrate the wide variety of sheep appearance, personality and husbandry. The text contains one of the best summaries I have seen on sheep basics and behavior, coupled with solid explanations of how these considerations translate into sheep handling techniques. She also includes an excellent comparison between signs of health and illness, and a good starting list of a sheep first aid kit, all critical information for a new shepherd.

Kris’s youngest son reads Weaver’s book while some curious sheep check him out.

The book is easy to read, as it is filled with tidbits of sheep quotes, facts and trivia as well as wonderful historical black and white photographs. The chapter on sheep history in particular was very interesting, with quite a bit of material I hadn’t read before. After 10 years of having sheep, that’s a nice bonus! The book also includes quotes from historical sources, which are a real treasure. It is fascinating to see that little has changed in the world of sheep husbandry: the advice still holds true.

The organization of material can sometimes appear a little haphazard. For example, if you have a ewe with suspected mastitis (an infection of the udder that often occurs after lambing or weaning), it probably would not occur to you to look in the chapter on cheese-making for further information. Likewise, procedures for inserting eartags and giving tattoos (for identification purposes, unless you have a real black sheep in your flock) is contained in the chapter about considerations when buying your sheep. But as this book is clearly just a starting manual, this may not matter, as most shepherds will probably seek out more comprehensive sources if they decide to buy sheep.

In NJ, where a plot of 5 acres or more can be designated for farm uses to get lower property taxes, raising sheep in the backyard may have a special appeal.

The title of the book is mostly accurate. It is a good resource if you are thinking of getting into sheep to keep your backyard grass trimmed (though you will still end up having to mow the plants they don’t like) and for the pleasure of interacting with sheep on a day-to-day basis (though it can have its challenges; see above). My major quibble is with the “productive” part of the title. Sheep produce three main products: meat, wool, and milk. While the book does discuss wool and milk production, it neglects the third and arguably most valuable product, meat.

While I understand that this is not part of the equation for many pet owners, in the interests of responsible breeding practices, it should be a mandatory consideration for anyone thinking of bringing more animals into the world. (And if you want milk, you have to breed, a point that many neophyte livestock owners fail to consider.) The chapter on breeding launches right into the pros and cons of keeping your own ram, and never mentions the most important question: what are you going to do with all those adorable lambs once they grow up?A responsible owner will have a plan for the lambs beforethey are born, and this book misses an opportunity to get its readers to think the issue through by explaining the various options available, except as a seeming afterthought in a brief appendix hidden behind the glossary.

If you have ever thought, “having a sheep would be really great!” then this book is a good place to start your information-gathering process. For starters, you will learn that one sheep isn’t a great idea, plus a whole host of other considerations necessary to your decision. Do you have what it takes to perform the basics of sheep doctoring? Are your facilities (buildings, fencing, etc.) adequate for a flock? The author provides sufficient information, in text and photos, to help you understand the various factors involved in sheep ownership, some of which you may not have even thought of. If you already have sheep, then this book may be worth a page-through for the historical information and sheep trivia.

“The Backyard Sheep: a guide to keeping productive pet sheep” by Sue Weaver retails for about $12. You can read more about Kris and her sheep on her blog, LoosingSleepCountingSheep.

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About the author

Pam MacKenzie
Our real estate editor, Pam MacKenzie, expresses her creative side in this blog about knitting. Pam learned to knit at age 6, when her friend’s mother made Pam’s doll a dress, and Pam wanted to make more. Her mother wanted her to learn how to sew in high school, but she was afraid of the sewing machines, cutting fabric the wrong way, and the potential that sewing would have for bringing down her grade-point average. Every year, she managed to find a course conflict to avoid sewing classes. But the day after high school graduation, she took her graduation money to a fabric store, bought a kit to make a sweater, taught herself to read patterns and never looked back. These days, she knits a prayer shawl every month, along with sweaters, tote bags, gift bags and other goodies. She also designs many of her projects. Read More About PamE-mail Pam